Our Workshop

Voice is an invisible instrument, at the same time more complex than any other, but much can be learned from analogy with other musical instrument. The production of sound, the resonance and pitch controlling mechanisms of voice can be compared to those of string or wind instruments, thus drawing useful conclusions.

• How is the sound made? The role of the resonator.
• Musical instruments versus voice
  • Producing sound
  • Regulating pitch
• Resonator’s own frequency. Formants.
• The importance of a low larynx.
  
  

The beautiful art of singing, one of the greatest achievements of humankind, is conceived in the mind of a singer who interprets the musical, artistic and intellectual intentions of the composers. But to actually produce it, while meeting the aesthetic demands of the audience, the singer uses parts of his own anatomy – muscles, bones and cartilages. The metaphorical language, traditionally employed by singing teachers over the last few centuries can, surprisingly, be much clarified by resorting to how the anatomy of the singing apparatus actually works. The centuries-old and ambiguous terms such as chest and head voices or falsetto can be explained in terms of muscle actions

• The larynx
  • Cartilages
  • Intrinsic muscles
  • Extrinsic muscles
     
• Vocal folds
  • Structure
  • Vibration modes
• The mechanics of “chest”, “head”, “falsetto” and supported falsetto voices. Belt.
• Laryngeal tilt. TA and CT pitch controlling mechanisms.
• The role of larynx’ external muscles in keeping the larynx low and accessing the top of the range in chiaroscuro manner.
• The mechanics of the passaggi and the “turn” (cover).

Voice acoustics deals with the production of powerful, resonant and uniform voice. The subject revolves around two main factors: a voice source or vibrator, which produces a set of harmonics, and a vocal tract filter or resonator, which selectively strengthens or weakens frequencies that are introduced into it by the voice source. Each resonator has its own preferred frequencies, called formants. The effect of the interactions between these two factors, mainly by “tuning” the formants is the primary concern of acoustic voice pedagogy. 

• Harmonics
• Formants
• Getting formants and harmonics to co-operate.
• Formants tuning. Vowel modification. Musical examples.
• Timbral opening and closing. “Yell” and “Whoop” coupling. Turn over.
• Registration events for all voices.
• Male passaggio training
• Female middle voice resonance gap. Tracking first harmonic with first formant.

Vocal registers are one of the most talked about - and yet still misunderstood - concepts in voice training. This is because the term “register” means different things to different people. Registers occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Modern science defines four registers in human voice, of which practically just one – the modal register - is used in classical singing. The historical definitions of “chest” and “head” registers are outdated as trained singers always blend the two making them just one register with varying contribution of the chest and head mechanisms.

• Terminology ambiguities. Vocal “breaks”.
• Four singing registers resulting from four different vibratory patterns
• The Modal register
• All is but one register!
• Male falsetto. The uses of.

Every singer, be aware or unaware of it, has a vocal strategy that he/she developed in order to produce volume, equalise the timbre across the vocal range, or just “sound well”. The strategy is developed by training in trained singers, and to some extent by intuition or sometimes chance in untrained ones. Getting the right mix of chest/head voices in each note of the scale, bridging the resonance gap between the “turn” and the whoop timbres (especially in females) by modifying articulators or choosing the vowel in formant tuning, covering, and making harmonics and formats to co-operate, are the main challenges in developing the vocal strategies.

• Male/female differences
• Events when moving across the range
• Middle voice challenge on open vowels (female voices)
• Male voice acoustic strategy
• Female vice acoustic strategy
• Singer’s formant
• Pavarotti’s Second Formant strategy.

We recognise a resonant voice when we hear it but is not so easy to define; it is rich in harmonic content, vibrant, with some nasality, a ring or a twang. It carries over the orchestra because it has higher harmonics enhanced by higher formants (sinter’s formant). However, at a higher level it turns out that a more likely source of resonance is the reinforcement of vocal fold vibration by an “inertive” vocal tract, which feeds energy back to the source of sound, thereby strengthening its harmonic content.

• Acoustic interpretation of the resonant voice
• Constituents of resonant voice
  • Vocal fold’s harmonic material
  • Ring, twang, nasality
  • Epiglottal squeeze.
  • Open throat/low larynx
  • Flow phonation, vocal fold closure
• The interactive vocal tract.